Jon Kennedy, Nanty Glo Home Page webmaster and owner, is a former teen and campus minister. He began his journalism career as teen columnist for the Nanty Glo Journal and its sister weekly newspapers from 1957 to '62 and became the Journal's third editor in 1962 at age 20. He has edited other newspapers and magazines, and more recently, webzines, ever since. His articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Christianity Today, and many other publications. His Jonals appear here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Complete index of Jon Kennedy's Jonal articles

Jon Kennedy's latest book is The Everything Guide to C.S. Lewis and Narnia, now in stores, from Adams Media, F&W Publications. From May 9, 2007 through July 2, 2008 his blog entries or "Jonals" were articles inspired by readings in Lewis's work that didn't fit into the book. Click here for a list of all articles in the C.S. Lewis Overflow series. The book is available for purchase in support of the Liberty Museum in Nanty Glo and is also available on Amazon.

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My cell in the desert

Jonal entry 1094 | March 18 2009

An acquaintance, moved, I don't doubt by divine leading, recently assayed to knock me down a peg or two by reminding me that I live in a mobile home and have never amounted to anything worth writing home about. It's a blessing to be humbled at any time, and especially during Lent, so I have to thank my acquaintance for her effort. But, after giving it some reflection, I should also confess that I'm not ashamed of living in a mobile home despite Jay Leno's and the US Postal Service's best efforts to cast all who do as trailer trash. It has been a goal of my life since at least my twenties to be able to say with St. Paul, "I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," Phillipians 4:11b-13.

I've had my seasons of "abounding," as Paul had. I lived for four summers in a luxurious resort on the New Jersey coast in my mid-twenties, all expenses paid. I worked in the middle of one of California's most beautiful settings among many of its brightest minds, and was my own boss at the time, able to come and go without the notice of anyone other than the Lord, for eleven years. I lived in two resort-style complexes in Los Angeles in 1998 and '99, the second of those a four-block walk to the best beach I've ever been at, and not only were all expenses paid, I got a daily stipend just for being there. But I've also been careful not to build my life around such amenities and perks. I knew I had to also be willing to be "abased," if that were to become my lot.

C. S. Lewis said, "I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity." Contrary to the TV preaching of "prosperity gospelers," Christ warned that following Him would be no picnic; members of your family will turn against you, you will be persecuted by the world, and you may be required to take up the cross as He had, even to the death. In comparison, my life, even if more of it has been lived in a doublewide than any other domicile, has been a cakewalk.

I knew when I was converting to Orthodoxy that I might be called to monastic life and tried my best to resolve that if that call came I'd be ready and submissive. Orthodox monasticism traditionally requires renouncing all worldly goods and all standing in "society," taking up a full time life of prayer in celibacy and "poverty." The lifestyle of the monastic is generally described as living in a "cell" in the "desert." In Russia, the desert is usually lush forests hundreds of miles from urban centers, and even in Greece the main one is on a wildly beautiful wooded peninsula jutting out into the Aegean Sea. But the "desert" comes from the origin of Christian monastacism in the Third Century, when many believers inspired by St. Anthony, the father of Christian monasticism, fled the secularizing influences on the church of official recognition by the Roman Empire into the literal deserts of Egypt. And before that, the desert was the place where Jesus retreated to prepare for ministry and be tempted by Satan himself. The early monastics' cells, and some of those of recent times, were usually caves in the face of cliffs, that sheltered them from the sun, the bitterest cold, and wildlife, where they lived in silence and solitude.

But ironically, enough of them came to welcome as their most honored guest in their humble digs (no doubt the origin of this slang term to mean "residence"), the Lord himself, and as the word and evidence of that spread, so did monasticism and its call. I'm of advanced enough age now not to expect any monastic call in my life, but I hope I've become wise enough to recognize the cell God has given me, and the desert where it's parked (for mobile home parks are as apt a metaphor for the desert as Mount Athos or Valaam). And though I'm not ashamed of my cell, it's at least as important not to let myself become proud of it, either.

—Webmaster Jon Kennedy

Below, a view through the trees into one of my favorite ancient monasteries, Glendalough, which was an Orthodox-style community in Ireland, founded by St. Kevin in the sixth century. Happy belated St. Patrick's Day!

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